In an unprecedented decision, the president issued an executive order to strip permitting authority for rebuilding from local officials and hand it to the federal government.

. . . Disaster recovery experts told POLITICO the president’s bid to dramatically expand federal power is legally questionable. The 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and established legal precedent argue against the federal government wresting away control of regulations, such as land-use rules, that are traditionally held by state and local governments, said Daniel Farber, faculty director of the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at UC Berkeley Law.

“This is completely unprecedented in terms of the history of federal disaster aid,” Farber said. “They’re gonna have a hard time making this stand up in court.”

. . . Newsom on Tuesday ridiculed Trump’s executive order as unnecessary and counterproductive. He reiterated the need for recovery dollars.

“Instead of finally sending to Congress the federal relief Los Angeles needs to rebuild from last year’s firestorms, Donald Trump continues to live in fantasy land,” Newsom said in a post on X. “Mr. President, you can actually speed up recovery by providing the assistance that survivors have been waiting for.”

The president’s order calls on the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration to consider new regulations to preempt local and state permitting rules and allow builders to certify to a federal agency that they’re in compliance with health and safety regulations to receive approval to build.

Farber said even if courts blessed the plan it was difficult to envision how it would work in practice. The federal government isn’t expert in Los Angeles’ code standards, and trusting builders to adhere to safety and quality standards without oversight could be dangerous to individuals and the broader community.

The naked corruption is so fucking exhausting